Like many of the games released within the middle of a generation, Pokémon Black 2 & White 2 have provided a variety of changed to the breeding mechanics. These changes help you to be able to fully get Pokémon you want from the eggs. These changes predominantly focus upon the creation of the Egg, with the natures and abilities you desire. However, there are also some helpful changes to how to hatch eggs. Unlike in most games, in Black 2 & White 2, you are unable to breed Pokémon until you have defeated the Elite Four and made it to Route 3.

Nature Mechanics

Back in Pokémon Emerald, the new feature was introduced that allowed for you to transfer the nature of one of the parent Pokémon. It started off with it being just the mother holding it, but from HeartGold & SoulSilver onwards, it changed to allow for either parents to do it. This was a 50% chance of passing it down. In Pokémon Black 2 & White 2, however, it has been changed once again. Now, when a parent Pokémon holds the Everstone, the baby Pokémon is guaranteed to hatch with the nature of the Pokémon holding the Everstone. If both parents are holding an Everstone, it is split so each nature has a 50% chance of being passed down.

Ability Mechanics

Since abilities were introduced in Ruby & Sapphire, when a Pokémon breeds, the baby Pokémon, if it is capable of having two abilities, has a 50% chance of getting either of the abilities. Black 2 & White 2 has changed this. Now, the ability the Pokémon will hatch with is dependant upon the mother. If the mother has their ability in slot 1, then the baby has an 80% chance of hatching with that ability, and 20% for the second ability and viceversa if the mother has the ability in the second slot. This calculation even happens if the baby Pokémon, or the mother, only has one ability, since the ability is the same in both slots. For example, if you are breeding a female Pidgeot and it has the ability of Tangled Feet, the baby Pidgey will have an 80% chance of having the ability Tangled Feet and a 20% chance of having Keen Eye.
The abilities listed in our Pokédex match the ability order so can be used for reference

Like in Black & White, if the mother has got their Hidden Ability and the father does not, the baby Pokémon has a 60% chance of hatching with its Hidden Ability, with a 20% chance for each of the other possibile abilities that it can have.

If Ditto is used in either of these, either as the female or the male, then the baby Pokémon will only have its standard abilities, with a 50% chance of being in either slot.

Hatching Mechanics

Hatching Pokémon has always been a bit of a chore, having to hatch Pokémon solely by moving around the region. In Emerald, Pokémon with Magmar Armor or Flame Body as their abilities halved the amount of steps required if they're in your party while in Black & White, Hatching Power was introduced as a Pass Power which halves the amount of steps needed during any length of time. Black 2 & White 2 have pushed this even further. As you get your Join Avenue to Level 15 and have defeated the Elite Four, you will encounter people who can open up Nursery shops. These nurseries can sell a variety of special items which affect egg hatching.

These items can only be purchased one each a day, but can dramatically cut the amount of steps required to hatch the egg. If it takes the eggs to zero, the egg will hatch as you move away from the store. The items are as follows:

Incubating Lv1 - You slowly incubate an egg. It becomes a tiny bit faster. - Increases by 5%Incubating Lv2 - You slowly incubate an egg. It becomes a little bit faster. - Increases by 30%Incubating Lv3 - You slowly incubate an egg. It becomes quite a bit faster. - Decreases steps by 5,120Incubating Lv4 - You slowly incubate an egg. You can speedup most eggs. - Decreases steps by 7,680Incubating Lv5 - You slowly incubate an egg. You can speed up all eggs. - Decreases steps by 10,240

So the topics to discuss:

Do you think Gamefreak is taking an active role in supporting competitive breeders?

Why do you think they made these changes to breeding in B2W2?

Are you happy about the changes made?

How much better and easier is this going to make your breeding endeavors?

Those nursery shops & their incubators sounds like a really sound concept, & if they are true to what they say, it's going to make breeding a lot faster. It'll take a huge load off of my shoulders, so that I can get back to whatever else I was doing beforehand, or go on to my next breeding project.

What I don't like, however, is the fact that I have to wait until I've already become a hall-of-fame trainer by going through the elite 4 to start breeding my Pokémon. That's way too long of a wait for me.

The new mechanics sound interesting. I like the incubator thing. I have no idea how to use Join Avenue though. These new mechanics make it impossible to RNG breed on B2W2, which is sad for RNGers like me. :/

Seriously though, I like those new breeding mechanics; they could potentially save a lot of time when I breed, such as the Everstone guaranteeing the chance that the nature will be passed down. I probably won't use the Joint Avenue for hatching my eggs quicker, though.

This just means I need to be more picky with parent Pokemon when I RNG...awesome, as if I wasn't picky enough, lol. :( But I think it makes sense and it's a good addition, especially when you just want to breed something real quick or for non-RNG breeders. Could be helpful...UNLESS you need a mother Pokemon that's a low female percentage AND you need a certain ability. YIKES.

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they found a prince living behind bars ≪challenges | klippy

This just means I need to be more picky with parent Pokemon when I RNG...awesome, as if I wasn't picky enough, lol. :( But I think it makes sense and it's a good addition, especially when you just want to breed something real quick or for non-RNG breeders. Could be helpful...UNLESS you need a mother Pokemon that's a low female percentage AND you need a certain ability. YIKES.

But RNG breeding for B2W2 is broken because of these new mechanics. :/

BW2 truly is full of many new awesome additions, and this is definitely one of them. I absolutely love the idea of Incubation, and it also promotes using Join Avenue.

I like the Ability mechanic, too--though, if the mother doesn't have the ability you want, that could be problematic XD; Same with the Nature mechanic--but at least it can vary if neither parent is holding an Everstone.

They just won't stop with awesome additions. ;A;
This is actually pretty neat. I don't care what anyone says, I did everything to try and get Pokemon to have the same nature as the mother and it only worked about two percent of the time. D<
But seeing as it is now all the way up to 100% is awesome.
The new hatching mechanics are neat, too. Depending on how many point you have for the Join Avenue, that instant incubation is like an Action Replay-less instant hatch cheat!
Now I can't wait to breed hundred of lil' Frillish. <3

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"I've been able to see spirits since I was born!" - Jesse AndersonInstagram

Whatever happened to
"Leave two pokemon, male and female, at a Pokemon daycare, walk a little, come back for an egg"?

Now we've got

"Leave a pokemon of a specific nature, specific ability, specific moveset of a specific egggroup with a pokemon of the opposite gender with a specific nature, specific ability, specific moveset of a specific egggroup, then walk 1000000 steps to get a random egg

this is why I hate breeding, I'm glad they don't let you do it until after you beat the E4

Whatever happened to
"Leave two pokemon, male and female, at a Pokemon daycare, walk a little, come back for an egg"?

Now we've got

"Leave a pokemon of a specific nature, specific ability, specific moveset of a specific egggroup with a pokemon of the opposite gender with a specific nature, specific ability, specific moveset of a specific egggroup, then walk 1000000 steps to get a random egg

this is why I hate breeding, I'm glad they don't let you do it until after you beat the E4

Game freak is just acknowledging the fact that there is heavy competitiveness in their game and a huge thing for it is breeding. You can still leave a Male and a Female (though the eggs were never random) and get any old thing, but now they are giving bonuses to those who are dedicated breeders by making the system easier to pull wanted results.

Knowing these breeding mechanics, I'm probably gonna pair up my Pokemon like crazy lol
This makes life much easier for me since I do quite a lot of competitive battling.
Still a bit disturbed at the late access to the Day-Care ಠ_ಠ

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